Paddling the Pocomoke

The day dawned sunny and clear and we were off for a morning of canoeing on the Pocomoke River, right in our backyard. Actually, we walked about 100 yards from the front yard of our B&B to the outfitter, who drove us about 5.5 miles upstream, unloaded a canoe from his trailer, gave us a couple of paddles and lifejackets and pushed us off into the dark water of the Pocomoke. This river flows through a wooded swamp with many cyprus trees and cyprus knees. The first half of the river was twisty and turny with some downed trees that we needed to limbo under. We saw lots of geese, cormorants, herons and turtles. The only other competition on the water was another canoer and a guy in a motor boat with his kids. We paddled down to our B&B, pulled the canoe up on the lawn where the outfitter will get it at his convenience. 

We got on the road to Washington, DC about 12:15 PM and arrived at the TownSuites hotel at 3:45. We followed the directions on our GPS and in hindsight, it probably would have been faster to take the beltway around the city instead of Rt. 50 right through the middle of town. Oh well, we made it and I got some good knitting time in as we crawled through downtown traffic. 

We drove to Liz's new apartment and 

were glad to see where she is now living. It is a great place and she has arranged the furniture to maximize the space she has. We went to dinner at a pizza place that cooks the pizzas in a wood-fired oven and we each had a great pizza. Bob and Sally, this is your favorite place, right??

After dinner we drove to the National Mall and walked around for a while. We visited the new World War II monument, which was both beautiful and impressive. 

Liz is a good tour guide and when she doesn't know an answer she very convincingly makes something up! We dropped Liz off at a party in the downtown area and then came back to the hotel. Thanks for showing us a good time, Liz.

Talked to Tucker briefly today and to Corey, last night. Tucker was hoping to get a lot of biking in this weekend and Corey was driving back from kayaking on the Salmon River.

We will head home tomorrow, seeing as Jim has to go to England on Sunday.

We've had a great trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. If you've never spent any time in this part of the country, put it on your Bucket List. 

Hope all is well.

More Miles in Maryland

Today was another biking day and it was spectacular! We drove north to the city of Salisbury where we parked the car in a shopping plaza lot and rode from there. We did a 47 mile (or 49, if you go by Jim's cyclometer) loop to the west and south of Salisbury, including 2 free ferry rides across the Wicomico River, a bit of urban riding and lunch in the town of Princess Anne. The temps started out in the mid 50's but were up into the mid 70's by the time we quit riding. Once again, we found great roads to ride on once we were away from Salisbury and Princess Anne.

After the ride we checked out one of the few remaining free zoos in the USA, the Salisbury Zoo. It was small, but fun and we enjoyed walking around (in the shade) and watching the river otters.

Once again, we are at the Snow Hill Public Library (thanks for the comment, Pat) and have our 30 minute allotment of computer use time.

Late yesterday afternoon we went to Assateague Island and walked along the beach for almost an hour. We watched a surf fisherman for a bit, but never saw him catch anything. We did see the wild horses while on that island-there were a couple in the campground and a few were on the volleyball courts!

From Assateague we drove to the Historic Downtown Section of Berlin, MD where we had dinner in the Globe Theater. This is restored, small-town movie theater that is now a restaurant with a stage and evening shows. Last night we listened to an older guy sing and play the guitar. He was pretty good, and played songs that were familiar to us. Our meals were great, including big dinner salads in pre-chilled bowls!

Have I mentioned how nice we have found Marylanders to be? Lots of people wave to us when we are on our bikes and yesterday, when we pulled off the road to read the map and get a drink, a guy passed in his truck, and slowed down to ask if everything was OK. A little while later, as we were riding down a rural road, a farmer was out plowing his field and he was creating quite a mini-dust storm that blew across the road. As we approached, he stopped plowing so we didn't have to ride through the dust! Nice is good!

Tomorrow we trade in our pedals for paddles as we are going canoeing on the Pocomoke River, which is the river we see out of our cottage window. There is an outfitter here in town who will drive us about 5 miles upstream and we will paddle down to Snow Hill. Around here it is optimal to paddle with the tide table in mind. We will be paddling as the tide is going out. Apparently, it is alot of work to go against the tide. That is something we don't usually think about when we go canoeing at home.

After canoeing we will head to Washington, DC, well, actually Falls Church, VA where we will meet up with Liz. We will have dinner some place in VA, see her new apartment and then maybe go into DC to walk around the National Mall at night. Jim had hoped to see the Pope, but is a day late and a dollar short!

Tomorrow we should have internet service at our hotel, so maybe I will include some photos in my entry.

Hope all is well.

Marvelous Maryland

We are in the Snow Hill Public Library right now because our B&B does not have internet access. So I have 30 minutes to let you know what we've been up to the past 2 days.

Yesterday, after leaving the Hambleton Inn in St. Michael's, we drove to the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge where we did a 27 mile bike ride around the refuge. We saw a nice variety of birds and I saw one turtle. The most memorable part of this ride was the wind. Now we have not found any hills here in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but there is wind. And sometimes we are loving the wind as it pushes us down the road and other times we are cursing it as Jim is leading the way into the wind and I am drafting behind him! The sun was out and the traffic was minimal so overall it was a good ride.

We loaded the bikes back on top of the Beetle and drove onto Snow Hill, where there is neither snow, nor a hill! Our B&B is a big old Victorian house with 3 cottages overlooking the Pocomoke River. We are in one of those cottages and it is very nice for us. There is a screened in porch where we can store our bikes and a nice room with a refrig and a microwave. After settling in we drove to Ocean City, MD for a walk on the boardwalk and dinner. Let me say that in mid-April, Ocean City is a ghost town. We walked the boardwalk and most of the shops were closed or closing at 6:oo PM. There were very few walkers and when we decided to find a restaurant, for a while we thought we might starve to death. Nothing is open in this town yet. We finally found an Italian place where we were able to recharge our carbo supply. We both agreed that this was not someplace we would want to be during the peak season! It would be a mob-scene.

This morning our breakfast was delivered to our cottage in a picnic basket and it was most enjoyable. We then headed off on a bike ride to see the area. We came upon an old furnace town that was the site of an old blast furnace that was used in the mid-1800's to convert bog iron ore into iron. The site is a bit like the Genesee Country Museum in that there are many period buildings that re-create what this town looked like in its hay day. There was also a weaver, a gardener, and a spinner, reenacting what life was like in the 1800's. I particularly enjoyed chatting with the spinner as she was spinning.

We continued riding and pretty much had the back roads of Worchester County to ourselves. The sun was out and the temperatures were approaching 60 so it was a perfect day for a ride. 37 miles later we returned to Snow Hill and since we hadn't found a place for lunch we rode to the small market where we bought some lunch stuff which we could eat in our room.

When we finish here at the library we are going to drive to Assateague Island and walk around. maybe we will see the wild horses. Dinner will be in the town of Berlin, Maryland, where the movie "Runaway Bride" was filmed. I'll be looking for Richard Gere!!!

No photos because I am on a library computer. Rest assured that we are enjoying sunny weather in a lovely part of the country.

Hope all is well.

Maryland Monday

Today we got sunny weather, but still pretty cool. It is supposed to warm up to the 60's and 70's as the week progresses. 

This morning we had a delightful breakfast at this B & B. We started with a wedge of watermelon and that was followed with blueberry pancakes and bacon. This place apparently always serves dessert with breakfast so we ended the meal with their signature pound cake with fresh strawberries. After that meal, we were ready to ride. 

Our bike ride today was a loop trip of 36 miles. We rode into the town of Easton, on a pretty busy road,  and then moved onto some back roads which provided easy riding. We rode to the town of Oxford right around noon and decided we had burned off those pancakes and went looking for a place to get some lunch. As the local church bells played a carillon of familiar hymns we followed some signs to the town's resturants, only to find them closed. We asked a local woman who was out for a walk and she said most places weren't open on Monday's for lunch because it wasn't the big tourist season yet. We ended up at the Oxford Market and bought 2 tasty deli sandwiches, which hit the spot. 

After our lunch, we rode to the ferry dock for our short ferry ride to Bellevue, MD. Because it was early in the season, we were the only folks on the boat! About 10 years ago, I brought the boys to the Eastern Shore with Bob and Liz. One of the things we did was a similar, but shorter bike ride that included this ferry trip. As I remember, the kids were not too thrilled with the bike ride, but did enjoy the ferry. 

We got back to St. Michael's in the early afternoon. We toured the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum which was very educational to us landlubbers. We were able to walk to the top of the lighthouse that was on-site, and particularly enjoyed the building dedicated to how the Bay transitioned from a working Bay to a Bay for play.

Walked around the town for a bit before returning to the B&B. We ate dinner at the Town Dock restaurant and had a good meal. 

Tomorrow we leave St. Michael's, and will head south for a bike ride around a wildlife refuge. From there we will go east, to our next B&B in Snow Hill, MD.

Hope all is well.

Made it to Maryland

Here it is only the second day of our vacation and we had so many good times already. Here's the re-cap from when we left on Friday afternoon. 

We drove from Rochester to Lewisburg, PA, where we had a really bad room in the Days Inn. We met up with one of my college roommates, Deb, who lives about 10 minutes away. We went to the Town Tavern for a drink and to catch-up. Deb has been teaching middle school English since we graduated from college, bless her heart! It was a fun evening-thanks for the drinks, Deb!

After a fair night's sleep on a Murphy Bed in the Days Inn we continued south on Route 15 to Harrisburg, where our first stop of the day was at the Whitaker Center for Science and Arts. We were there to see the IMAX movie, Grand Canyon Adventure. If you ever have a chance to see this film, get your tickets immediately. It is so well done and had a wonderful message about the importance of proper water management. A bonus for us was that the man that was the trip leader is a man that we did a river trip with, down the Colorado River, 25 years ago. The man is a legend on the river and it was great to see him on the big screen. Of the hundreds of river guides in Grand Canyon, what an honor to have our friend, Regan chosen to lead the IMAX trip. We knew he was a gifted guide so many years ago. 

From Harrisburg, we jumped back on Rt. 15 (I love to drive Rt. 15) and continued onto Gettysburg. I think every Boy Scout troop from the mid-Atlantic states was there! But we changed into our biking clothes, grabbed a map and headed out on the 15 mile Auto Loop Tour. We did not stop at too many places because we have been there a few times in the past (Tucker and Corey may have different perceived numbers for how many times we have been there!).

While we were riding, my cell phone rang, and I heard it, and it was Tucker! I was so excited to tell him that we were talking to him from Gettysburg. He had a great San Juan River trip and was now in Durango for a concert. Our bike ride was wonderful, especially since the sun came out as we pedaled out of the Visitor Center Parking lot. In this photo we are leaning against the monument dedicated to Col. O'Rorke, a Rochester native. We now have a bridge over the Genesee River named in his honor.

From Harrisburg we drove to Baltimore, where we met up with our Jenny Lake friends Robin and Joe. The live in a lovely row house, right across from a park, where we went for a walk shortly after our arrival. Sally and Jim, more Jenny Lake friends who also live in Baltimore, joined us for cocktails so we had a mini-Jenny Lake reunion. Robin cooked us a wonderful dinner, which we started to eat on their patio until it started to rain, at which point we picked up plates, silverware, candles and the tablecloth and moved into the dining room. Before retiring for the night, we got to see photos from Robin and Joe's trip to Morrocco to see Hannah, who is there are a Peace Corps worker. This morning we attended their urban evangelical Lutheran church and were made to feel very welcome. Can I get an "Amen"!

We said our thank-yous and goodbyes to Robin and Joe and headed to the Eastern Shore area of Maryland. We are staying in a nice B & B in St. Michaels. We quickly unloaded our stuff from the Beetle and headed out on a bike ride. We rode out Rt. 33 to the end of Tilghman Island, about 16 miles each way. Jim set a good pace on a pancake flat road. The traffic was minimal since we didn't get started until after 3 PM. Tonight we had a lovely dinner at The Bistro, a restaurant about 5 blocks from our B & B. Our meals were delicious (and we were starved after riding almost 32 miles), and we finished the dinner off with tasty wildberry sorbet! Yummy!

So that catches you up on our adventures. We have had some rain, but nothing that has kept us from doing what we wanted. Tomorrow is supposed to be another cloudy day, but after that I think the weather is to clear. 

Hope all is well with you. Blueberry Pancakes are on the menu for breakfast tomorrow at this B &B! That will be good fuel for our bike ride!